An Interview with Erin Foley

You wouldn’t know it based on her stand-up sets, but Erin Foley is a private person. The comic, who makes a habit of regularly over-sharing on-stage, is now a seasoned veteran of the biggest lesbian party of the year after performing this past weekend at Club Skirts The Dinah’s Laughing Loud party with a who’s who of gay comic goddesses including Suzanne Westenhoefer, Bridget McManus and Nicol Paone.

AfterEllen.com caught up with Foley at the event — when she wasn’t busy pushing crackers for us — to discuss Dinah, why performing for “Straighter McStraighter Pants” audiences is important and why she turned down being on The Real L Word: Los Angeles.

AfterEllen.com: What was performing at The Dinah like?Erin Foley: The crowd was fantastic; they were really into it. It’s a little overwhelming performing at the (Palm Springs) Convention Center. Acoustically, you’re like, “Is this going well?” You can’t really hear well, you can’t really hear the feedback and you just have to keep going. The best part was really performing with that bunch of comics, they’re just fantastic and some of my favorites. I’d never really seen Vickie Shaw perform, so that was a real treat.

AE: Is this your first Dinah?EF: Second performing. Last year I opened for Suzanne Westenhoefer and that was fantastic and a good learning experience. It’s super fun. For me, I am very shy off the stage so I kind of want to run and then you have to do red carpet. It’s very traumatic, which makes me laugh because I just want to do the jokes, then have a beer in the corner. It’s just very public and you just have to get used to it.

AE: I’ll be sure to get you a beer when we’re done then. EF: I’d like you to fulfill that promise … and make it a keg. Honestly, it feels a little overwhelming, but it’s fun.

AE: What about the rest of the weekend, what do you have planned? EF: I have to do the fashion show (Sunday).

AE: What will you be wearing? EF: I know I’ll be wearing some Bud Light, maybe some galoshes. I hope some aggressive hats, since it is Easter Sunday.

AE: And if they put you in Ed Hardy, what would you do? EF: I might rip it off. I’m not an Ed Hardy fan. Maybe I’ll just do a lot of aggressive spandex.

AE: What else is coming up for you? EF: Gays R Us is Wednesday (at the Improv in Hollywood) and a lot of auditioning. I just got back from Vegas, which was really fun. They were down with the gay jokes, which was really cool. I did 12 shows in like five days, it was insane.